My first Sunfish, Longear versus cichlid

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tiger15

tiger15

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Oct 1, 2012
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I just bought my first sunfish, a Longear from a LFS. I have always been a cichlid keeper and have zero experience with sunfish. I placed him in a grow out tank with juvie cichlid, and he is already showing his assertiveness and taking pellet food voraciously within minutes. My future plan is to move him into my 125 with medium to large cichlids, mostly peaceful Aulanocara, and Vieja speceies.

Do you think he can handle cichlid aggression or he will become the aggressor?

He is only about 1 inch so I don't think he can be sexed. I am thinking of getting a couple more to ensure I have a male, Do you think they will tolerate one another or eventually I have to thin out to one?
 
Just so we are on the same page, you do realize these fish (sun fish) are cold water species...? How they interact with tropical species can only be a speculation. How they interact with other native coldwater species is also trial and error. It has been my experience that sun fish are aggresive...like bass aggressive....and it is a crapshoot putting them with cichlids.
 
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boldtogether said:
Just so we are on the same page, you do realize these fish (sun fish) are cold water species...? How they interact with tropical species can only be a speculation. How they interact with other native coldwater species is also trial and error. It has been my experience that sun fish are aggresive...like bass aggressive....and it is a crapshoot putting them with cichlids.
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Sunfish? I catch them all the time when I'm fishing lol
 
Yes, I fully realized that sunfish is a cool water fish with species ranging from Mexico to Canada. They are the north American cousin of CA/SA cichlid. I have caught sunfish too, but they are the less colorful green or bluegill sunfish as Longear is not indigenous in my region. I always admire Longear beauty which looks remarkably like Turquoise Jewel cichlid minus the central spot or a turquoise discus minus the disc shape. I just don't know how they will behave and how well they will get along with cichlid, and this is why I am asking.

Longear.jpg

Missouri_Longear.jpg
 
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tiger15 said:
Yes, I fully realized that sunfish is a cool water fish with species ranging from Mexico to Canada. They are the north American cousin of CA/SA cichlid. I have caught sunfish too, but they are the less colorful green or bluegill sunfish as Longear is not indigenous in my region. I always admire Longear beauty which looks remarkably like Turquoise Jewel cichlid minus the central spot or a turquoise discus minus the disc shape. I just don't know how they will behave and how well they will get along with cichlid, and this is why I am asking.

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Just because they are cousins doesn't mean they won't fight or stress each other.
I wouldn't put an Oscar with a Discus because I considered the cichlid cousin relationship. All you can do is make an educated guess and that is with any species. I assumed by the post that you didn't know the differences in this species and hence the question of compatibility. Sounds like you bought before you thought....no offence.
I think I did answer your question about aggressive behaviour. If you have experience with bass, then you can expect similar behavior from sunfish. At least plan for the worse and hope for the best.
 
Depending on where your longear is from, it might do fine in tropical temps. If you got it from a LFS, it's probably already adapted to higher temps. It may not live as long, but it should be alright.
Compatibility will vary depending on if you have a Northern longear or not. If you have a Northern variant longear, it's going to get probably 7-9" long. If you have one from further South, it'll get maybe 6" max.
They're pretty mean. If it's big enough when introduced, it'll stick up for itself.
Don't get any more unless your tank is 100g+. To avoid fighting, longears are best kept without any of their own kind. If a male and female pair up, the male will dig a nest (bowl-shaped hole twice as wide as the fish is long) and defend it ferociously. If you get multiple males, they fight each other. I don't know what happens if you get multiple females, never had it happen. I did have a group of what turned out to be 6 males, and they about tore each other apart once they all hit puberty*. I finally took out 5, and the last one is showing some nice colors in a tank of misc toughies. He ignores the non-sunfish, aside from attempting to eat a young silver dollar (he didn't succeed and has left them alone since), and my warmouth sunfish only earns the occasional angry glare/floof during feeding time.

*Is fish puberty a thing? There was definitely a pretty clear defining line between "We are young babies and we will leave the big buff male's nest alone" and "OH HELLO WE ARE SMALL ADULTS AND WE WILL FIGHT EACH OTHER". I'm assuming there was some sort of drastic hormonal change to make them do that.

forum.nanfa.org is a good resource for native fish care.
 
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Betty, thanks for the reply which is exactly what I am looking for, personal experience with sunfish. Mine from a LFS is a tank raised stock as manifested by its eagerness to take pellet food. I wouldn't dare to introduce wild fish into my tank for fear of introducing diseases and parasites. It's only 1 inch, already showing assertiveness of its place among similar size grow out cichlid. It swims in the front to beg for food and I anticipate it to grow fast. The puberty thing also applies to cichlid as they can turn from peaceful schooling juvies into mean territorial males. I don't know whether mine is a northern or southern Longear, but don't mind having the larger variant as my future plan is to move him into my 125 with tough 6-14" cichid tankmates.
 
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